CONSEQUENCES

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created.

CHAPTER 10-ON THE RUN

"What are you," Katy shouted in horror as she scurried back away from two vampires that had hopped up onto the stage and glared at her, their yellow eyes glistening in the sparkling stage lights.

"They are vampires…the undead," Illyria answered with a very determined look on her face as she leapt up onto the stage and positioned herself in between Katy and the two vampires.

"But they don't exist, they're just…," Katy continued with a look of fearful disbelief on her face as she shook her head and searched for something to put between herself and the vampires.

"They are not figments of your imagination or stories told to scare young children, vampires are real and very dangerous," Illyria explained quickly before she confronted the two vampires that had jumped up onto the stage, using a side kick to knock one off of the stage before turning to the other.

"Damn bitch…what are you," The other vampire growled with a very surprised glare on its face before Illyria silenced it.

"I am Illyria, I am a god," Illyria said with a very confidant and proud look on her face as she snapped the other vampires neck.

"But that's impossible…that old man couldn't have been right…he was crazy," Katy mumbled to herself as she frantically picked up what remained of her costume and tried to straighten out the confusion in her own mind.

"We should speak of this later, it is not safe here," Illyria added with an unsure look on her face before one of the vampires smashed through the wall with one of the tables and found the gas line.

"No wait…don't," Katy cried with a great amount of fear in her voice as Illyria grabbed her around the waist and crashed through the bead curtain that lead to the changing room before the two blasted through the half open back emergency door. They had only made it a few feet before the Orange Crush exploded in a large fireball.

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"How do you feel," Angel whispered softly with a concerned look on his face as he reached across the bed and wiped a few stray hairs off of Nina's face. He had laid Nina on her side on their bed, still wrapped up in his duster. He had taken the free time to begin to see to the injuries that he had sustained in capturing her the night before. When she had begun to stir he had climbed back onto the bed and laid down on his side so that he and Nina were almost face-to-face. Nina blinked a few times and groaned softly before fully opening her eyes and locking her gaze on Angel.

"I don't feel so good," Nina mumbled softly with a slightly sickly look on her face as she feebly brought a hand up and wiped it across the left side of her face.

"It was probably something that you ate…you sure did a number on those demons," Angel started to joke with an amused but worried look on her face before Nina breathed in deeply to laugh but stopped short and cried out in pain and grabbed her side. In an instant he had closed the gap between them and gently pulled her up into his arms, racking his brain to try and figure out something to help her. She mumbled something incoherent through the pain before the tears began to fall, unheeded down her cheeks.

"Angel…," Nina moaned softly with a defeated expression on her face as she didn't make an attempt to wipe away the tears.

"Shh…, it'll be okay, everything will be fine," Angel stated back with a supportive tone as he gently rubbed her back.

"How can you say that, everything will not be fine it can't be, I could have killed you last night and I wouldn't have even realized it until this morning…," Nina snapped back quickly with an angry scowl on her face as she glared up at Angel for a few moments before she couldn't hold in the anger and let it out in several body wracking sobs. Angel stayed silent for several minutes, holding Nina close, before he was finally able to formulate something to say.

"Don't say that, you didn't almost kill me and Spike, in fact…you saved us, if it hadn't been for you we never would have made it out of that alley alive," Angel quickly stated, forcing as much sincerity and honesty into his voice as he could muster on the spot, as he gently cradled the scared Nina in his arms.

"Liar…," Nina mumbled back up at Angel with a poorly done glare in her eyes as Angel was sure that she was trying to appear tough but inside she was very thankful for his admonition.

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The plane from Rome to London had been quiet enough, with it only being marred by Xander accidentally spilling his drink all over Dawn and Andrew hurrying out of the bathroom so fast that he had knocked the dessert cart over. Buffy had done her best to apologize and offer to pay for the damaged pastries but the plane had hit some turbulence just then and by the time that the flight attendant's had remembered her offer she and the others had left the plane. Giles took it upon himself to make the arrangements for lodgings for them all and soon he was on the phone with one of the slayers that made up the dozen strong group that was on their way to London. They had been forced to take the next flight after Buffy and the others but since no one thought that they'd be needed right away that fact wasn't much of a disappointment.

"So where is this hotel anyway, I'm starving," Dawn asked with an impatient pout on her face as she stared sadly out through the cabs dirt smudged windows.

"Calm down Dawn we're almost there," Buffy grumbled back with an uncomfortable and nervous frown on her face. Even though she couldn't place it ever since she had stepped foot off of the plane from Rome she had been feeling odd and out of sorts. She couldn't quite put her finger on it but she felt like she hadn't since her last day in Sunnydale. That last time had been when she had begged Spike that he had done enough and to come with her. He had refused of course, leaving her to wonder what had been going on inside his head when he had not believed her declaration of love. A voice in the back of her mind had been screaming at her ever since that he had believed her and returned the feelings to the utmost, but was terrified at what that would mean for them. He had turned her down with his voice but the fireworks that had gone off in his eyes had only confused her more.

"So which hospital did Morgan go to," Kennedy asked with a bored out of her mind frown on her face as she turned from watching the other cars go by and instead focused her attention on the book that Willow was trying to read.

"It's not far, while the rest of you get settled in I'm going to check it out," Giles replied softly as he hung up the phone and checked his watch.

"I'm going with you…," Buffy started to announce with a nervous look on her face as the cab finally came to a stop before Giles interrupted her.

"That's alright Buffy, I'm quite capable of interviewing a few doctors and nurses by myself, you and the others should try and get some sleep, you can patrol tonight," Giles interjected with an anxious smile on his face as he seemed to want to get out of the cab and to the hospital more than anything.

"Yeah…you're probably right…it's just that," Buffy replied with a slightly nervous look on her face before Willow broke in, all without glancing up from her book.

"She doesn't want to be in her room when the Immortal calls…," Willow stated with a well-hidden smirk on her face before she calmly turned the next page of her book and continued reading.

"That's not it…I just…want to get a lay of the land during the day," Buffy quickly argued with a flushed and embarrassed smile on her face as she looked like she wanted to reach out and strangle Willow.

"Maybe we should ask some of the locals, see if there's any demony gang war going on or something like that, it won't do us any good if there was and we walked right into the middle of it unprepared," Xander chimed in with a hopeful smile on his face before he calmed down as everyone else, save Willow, glared at him lightly.

"I'm hot…," Andrew moaned with an uncomfortable frown on his face as he sat squeezed up against the side of the cab as Buffy, Dawn, and Xander took up most of the seat.

"Sorry but we didn't have enough for two cabs…," Dawn mumbled with a slight look of regret on her face as she turned and smiled at Andrew, partially hoping that it would go far to calm him down.

"We barely had enough for the hotel rooms…," Buffy added with an unhappy look on her face before the cab pulled up in front of the hotel.

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Faith stood there, naked as the day she was born and dripping wet from the shower, in front of the bathroom mirror of her hotel room. She stared intently at her reflection in the smooth surface, again and again tracing the what she considered ugly scar across her throat. The most unnerving part for her wasn't exactly the sight of the scar given her slayer healing but every time that she touched the area a flash of memory washed over her. Except the flash of memory confused her completely, because after the first few times of viewing the memory she had come to the conclusion that it was not her memory that she was viewing. She couldn't quite place the location of the memory but as she studied the flash of memory more and more she found that she thought that some of the buildings looked vaguely like those near Wesley's apartment in LA. Unconsciously her fingers drifted down from the scar on her neck to the medallion. She started to rub it again but stopped with her thumb halfway across its face. Nervously she glanced away from her reflection in the mirror and brought the medallion up just under her chin. She let out a small gasp when the reflection of the medallion was not the one that she remembered. Gone was the intricate snowflake pattern; in its place was a carving that looked to Faith a great deal like an old coin that she had seen during her travels. It had a small square hole in the center and the lines of tiny writing that circled the hole were in a language that Faith had never seen before. A sly but sad smile graced her lips as she somehow knew instantly that Wesley would know what the script translated into but being who she was Faith only shook her head and let several long strands of her still sopping wet hair fall forward and conceal her face.

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Giles had snuck away to the hospital after getting Buffy and the others checked in but had not been able to find out much, other than that Morgan had made a seemingly miraculous recovery. When she had rushed out of the hospital a mere ten minutes after first arriving the doctors had started to go after her but stopped when she quickly disappeared into the night. When he had tried to ask them about those that Morgan had come in with the doctors said that they couldn't remember exactly what they looked like, blaming their memory lapse on that night being extremely busy and having not slept in two days. Thanking them politely Giles started to leave the hospital before an old nurse stopped him by softly asking him if was looking for the young woman that had been brought in with a knife wound to the stomach only to leave a few moments later, running out like she was late for something. After nervously lying to the old nurse and claiming to be her uncle Giles' heart skipped a beat when the old nurse mentioned that one of the two that had brought her in had bleached blond hair.

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"Ow…," Katy moaned with a pained grimace on her face as she slowly pushed herself up and off of the ground.

"Are you damaged," Illyria asked with an almost angry tone to her voice as she stood up and looked down at Katy lying naked on the hot pavement of the parking lot. Off in the distance police and firefighter sirens could be heard wailing as they raced to the scene.

"I…I don't think so," Katy started to answer with a scared and confused expression on her face before she noticed that a small cut on her finger that she had received that morning was suddenly gone.

"Good, now get up, the authorities will be here shortly," Illyria added with an almost emotionless look on her face as she turned back to face the still smoldering remains of the club.

"But shouldn't we wait for them…," Katy argued with a panicked look on her face as she shakily got back to her feet and did her best to cover her nakedness.

"They will not understand, this is beyond them," Illyria countered with a very certain and confidant look on her face before she glanced down and scowled. Unfortunately during the fight and subsequent explosion her sparse amount of clothing had been reduced to almost nothing. Concentrating very hard and focusing intently on the task at hand she was able to repeat the same process that she had done months earlier to make a new outer covering for her old shell she made one for this new shell as well. However unlike her earlier attempt at it this time she overspent her energy and was left exhausted. Before she knew what was happening Illyria dropped down to one knee and had Katy not intervened she would have continued down to the ground.

"Jamie," Katy shouted with a great deal of panic as she rushed to her friends side and tried to help Illyria regain her bearings while not letting go of what there was of her clothing.

"We need to go…," Illyria stammered out through the pain and exhaustion as she forced herself back up to her feet and quickly found a means to their escape. With almost all of her remaining strength she dragged Kay after her for a bit before they got to a small red car.

"I'll drive," Katy stated with a shaky tone to her voice as she helped Illyria into the passenger side seat and then slipped into the drivers seat and fishing underneath the seat for the keys.

"This is your car, and you leave the keys here…," Illyria asked with a very tired look on her face as she lazily turned her head to one side to look over at Katy.

"My car's a piece of shit, I'm certainly not going to lose my life trying to stop a carjacker," Katy quickly replied with a frustrated and scared look on her face before she found the keys, inserted them into the ignition and fired the engine. The small car barely made it out of the parking lot before the fire engines and police cars swung around the corner.

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"So how is she," Spike asked softly with a bored look on his face as Angel tiredly took a seat next to him at the bar and then ordered himself a drink.

"She'll be fine," Angel replied with a tired and weary look on his face before he nodded his thanks to the bartender and took a sip.

"Thought you didn't drink anymore," Spike asked with a half amused but yet serious look on his face as he half looked over at his grandsire.

"Rough night," Angel calmly replied back with a bit of a threatening tone of voice telling Spike to let it drop before Angel winced at the motion of his arm as his injuries had yet to fully heal.

"So what are we going to do tonight, we don't want another rough night, not sure how many more of them I can take," Spike asked with a concerned look on his face before he took a sip of his own drink.

"I've already got Gwen and Groo working on it, they're scouring the city looking for somewhere that Nina can stay at nights until this phase passes," Angel replied with a realistically hopeful look on his face as he glanced over at Spike before taking a drink.

"How'd you ever get them to do that, can't say as I can see how Gwen would have readily gone along with that idea," Spike wondered aloud with a serious frown on his face as he slowly began to stir the ice in his drink around the glass.

"She didn't at first, but I told her that the sooner that she found somewhere safe for Nina the sooner that we'd find the axis and get Wesley back," Angel answered with a solemn frown on his face as he continued to stare straight ahead into the mirror that sat as the bars backdrop, wanting to chuckle a bit at his lack of reflection.

"Any sign of Wolfram and Hart yet," Spike whispered softly to Angel, so low in fact that only because Angel was a vampire did he even hear the question. In a silent answer Angel shook his head and frowned.

"Have you seen Faith since last night," Angel asked Spike softly as he scooted his stool a bit closer to Spike's and then downed the rest of his drink.

"Nope…she's been in her room the whole time though, smells like she probably took three showers, almost got knocked out by the scent of shampoo and soap coming from her room, partially why I'm down here," Spike replied with a quick roll of his eyes before he to ordered another drink.

"I'm worried about her, at first I wasn't sure what to make of that medallion, but after what happened last night I'm not ruling out that it's some form of mind control, it's not like her to just take off after…ghosts," Angel added with a concerned tone to his voice as he downed the next drink in one long gulp.

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Gwen and Groo had stuck good on their word. The two had been scouring the city almost all day, stopping for a little bit of lunch. They were forced to use a large amount of tact in their search, as they knew that they couldn't exactly simply go up and ask people if they had a steel cage big and strong enough to hold a werewolf. Gwen knew of a few people in London that might be able to help her, but she kept those stops until the very last. More than once during the day Gwen thought that she and Groo were being followed but she had never seen anyone out of the ordinary when she had looked back. They were almost ready to start to check out Gwen's list of contacts when while waiting for the light to change everything changed. Above the crowd noise all that Gwen could make out was that someone was talking on there cell phone and what they said froze her in her tracks, "Buffy…it's me Giles, I didn't get much from the hospital, maybe you'll have better luck tonight on your patrol."

END OF CHAPTER 10